More Carthay Circle pages: history + exterior views | interior views |
"Good Theatres Deserve Good Equipment." We get a look at the Carthay Circle booth in an ad for Simplex projectors in the August 14, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News. It's on Internet Archive.
Those are Ashcraft lamps behind the two Simplexes. In the center are two Brenkert followspots. At the far left it's a Brenkert Brenograph effects projector. Note the bank of houselight dimmers down at the far end of the booth.
This view of the booth appeared in the March 19, 1927 issue of Exhibitors Herald. It's on Internet Archive. Thanks to theatre researcher Mike Hume for spotting it. See his terrific Historic Theatre Photography site for thousands of photos of theatres he's investigated in L.A. and elsewhere. The caption:
"Visitors to the Carthay Circle theatre, one of Los Angeles' most beautiful theatres, have expressed their satisfaction over projection at the house, according to advices from the West Coast. This house is equipped with Ashcraft high intensity arcs used in many of the country's largest theatres and in the case of 'The Volga Boatman,' which recently ended a long engagement, and 'What Price Glory,' now running at the Carthay Circle.
Sound arrives: Evidently sound came to the theatre in
the spring of 1928. "Street Angel," an April 1928 release, played the
theatre in Movietone. Meaning it was Western Electric sound-on-film equipment. They had deals with both Fox and Warner Bros.
70mm Fox Grandeur in 1930: The Carthay Circle was one of the few Los
Angeles theatres (or theatres anywhere) to be equipped for the 70mm Fox
Grandeur process. The Carthay got special prisms installed in front of
the Grandeur projectors to (supposedly) eliminate the keystoning
distortion caused by the 23 degree projection angle.
The only feature screened in 70mm Grandeur at the Carthay was the 1930 production "Happy Days" which had
a seven week run opening February 28, 1930. They also ran a second
feature in 35mm along with it.
A few frames from a 70mm print of "Happy Days." It's from the American Widescreen Museum's page "Seventy Millimeters," reprinting a February 1930 American Cinematographer article. On the release prints there was a very wide optical sound track that we don't see here. We also don't see perforations -- there were four large ones per frame. The process ran at 20 frames per second.
An illustration of the "triple vision" image you'd see with "Happy Days" in Grandeur at the Carthay -- on a screen of "unprecedented proportions." The image and a story appeared in the Hollywood Filmograph issue of March 1, 1930. It's on Internet Archive. The article noted:
Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality for finding the item and posting it as his Noirish post #26477.
A photo of one the hand-built Simplex 70mm projectors installed at the Carthay Circle Theatre in 1930. Note the curved gate (the opposite direction of 1950s and later designs) as well as the fact that projector and soundhead are one unit, a deviation from normal American design practice. The photo is from the great In70mm.com article "Magnified Grandeur - The Widescreen 1926- 1931" where David Coles gives a wonderful history of this early widescreen process.
A view of the booth installation in 1930 at the Carthay Circle. It's another photo that's reproduced in David Coles' Magnified Grandeur" article. This image and the one above appear in the 1931 AMPAS publication "Recording Sound For Motion Pictures" edited by Lester Cowan. This shot had earlier appeared with the April 1930 article in The Motion Picture Projectionist that's reproduced lower on this page.
A March 15, 1930 ad for "Happy Days" that Jack Tillmany found in the L.A. Times noted:
"The Film of the Future." This is another item included by Pancho Ds in his post on the private Facebook group Friends of 70mm.
The Carthay booth installation is described in this April 1930 article from The Motion Picture Projectionist. Many thanks to Bob Furmanek's 3-D Film Archive site where this article was reproduced on his Widescreen Documentation page. These Grandeur machines were 70mm only. The Carthay installation was 3 Grandeur machines and two regular 35mm machines.
Simplex later built a few prototype 35/70 Grandeur machines. It's one of those second generation machines we see on this article from the August 1, 1931 issue of Motion Picture Herald:
The Los Angeles Theatres Film and Theatre Technology page has more about Fox Grandeur and other early 70mm processes. For more information also see the overview page for Grauman's Chinese, which got a Grandeur installation for the eight week run of "The Big Trail," opening October 2, 1930. Most likely the same machines were just moved from the Carthay Circle to the Chinese.
Fantasound stereo at the Carthay Circle in 1941: This theatre was one
of the few in the country to exhibit Disney's "Fantasia" with the
elaborate sound system that was intended by the studio.
An ad piece for "Fantasia" touting the "Multiplane Technicolor" photography and "the new thrilling Fantasound." It's from the Fantasound section page one of Martin Hart's wonderful site American Widescreen Museum.
The projectors were interlocked via Selsyn motors with separate optical sound reproducers carrying stereo tracks for 3 stage channels plus surrounds. It was a complex system that also included variable gain amplifiers to increase the dynamic range. A mono backup track was on the film with the picture.
The separate optical reproducer that carried 3 push-pull tracks plus a control track (to set levels for the variable gain amplifiers). It's from the Fantasound section page one of the American Widescreen Museum.
The Mark X version of the gear that was installed at the Carthay Circle also used notches on the sides of the film to cue relays to activate the speakers in the left and right rear of the auditorium. These auditorium speakers could duplicate the information from the left and right stage channels or function with those signals alone (with the stage speakers shut off) as was the case with the "Ave Maria" number.
The 11 racks of RCA equipment at the Carthay Circle for the roadshow of "Fantasia." The photo appears on Fantasound section page 3 of the American Widescreen Museum.
The film opened in New York November 13, 1940 and at the Carthay Circle on January 30, 1941. Due
to the cost of the installations, disappointing boxoffice performance,
and looming war-related materials shortages most "Fantasia" engagements
were mono optical. After this great experiment, we didn't see stereo
sound in movie theatres again until "This Is Cinerama" arrived in 1952.
70mm TODD-AO at the Carthay Circle: This was the third Los
Angeles theatre equipped for TODD-AO with the second film in the process, "Around the World in 80 Days,"
opening December 22, 1956. It ran for 127 weeks. The first film, "Oklahoma!" played the Egyptian and the United Artists.
The theatre underwent major renovations including removal of plasterwork on the proscenium and organ grilles. A new booth was built downstairs for the Norelco 35/70 DP70 projectors. Much of the auditorium was draped. Terry Helgesen, in the article about
the theatre in the October 1983 issue of Console, noted that the remodel
included chopping off the first five rows of the balcony and closing
off the front balcony exits.
Many other 70mm roadshow runs followed including "Porgy and Bess"
(1959), "Can-Can" (1960), "The Alamo" (1960), "El Cid" (1961), "The
Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965) and "Shoes of the Fisherman" (1968-69). The
theatre also got the 70mm moveover run of "The Sound of Music" (from
the Fox Wilshire) in 1966 and a run the 70mm version of "Gone With the
Wind" in 1967.
More about TODD-AO: See the Los Angeles Theatres Film and Theatre Technology page for more about this and other
70mm processes. Also see the TODD-AO discussion on the overview page for the Egyptian Theatre, the first such installation in Los Angeles.
For a great compilation of information about 70mm runs in Los Angeles theaters, see Michael Coate's 70mm in Los Angeles page on FromScriptToDVD.com. Also check out his terrific 2016 article "Around the World in 60 Years; Remembering 'Around the World in 80 Days' on its 60th Anniversary" on the site The Digital Bits. His posts on Cinema Treasures also have listed 70mm runs at the Carthay Circle.
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